Malaysian passport just named 13th most powerful in the world, 2nd most powerful in Southeast Asia
Good news fellow itchy-footed Malaysians!
The Malaysian passport has been named 13th most powerful in the world!
This blessed news comes courtesy of the Henley Passport Index, a respected institution that ranked 199 passports using data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Each passport is then ranked based on scores according to the
accessibility conditions below:
- Visa-free access to countries– 1 point per country
- Access to countries requiring visa on arrival, a visitor’s permit, or an electronic travel authority (ETA) upon entry – 1 point per country
- Access to countries requiring visa or e-visa before departure – 0 points
- Access to countries requiring pre-departure government approval – 0 points
According to the conditions above, Malaysia’s passport scored a total of 176 points with visa-free access to 176 countries and visa required for 50 countries.
Not too bad right?
Actually, not bad at all!
In Southeast Asia, Malaysia has the 2nd most powerful passport, beaten only by Singapore (dammit!) but ahead of Brunei’s 3rd spot (yay!).
On a global scale, our neighbours did alright with Brunei at No 22, Indonesia at No 75 and Thailand at No 70.
But the real winners were Japan and Singapore at No 1 (dammit!),
followed by South Korea, Germany and Finland at No 2. While the 3rd spot
goes to Denmark, Italy and Luxembourg.
There are also some interesting observations from the list, UAE
enters the top 20 for the first time, climbing a record-breaking 41 places over
the past decade.
Taiwan has also made great improvements, climbing 24 places
over the past ten years.
To no one’s surprise, in the last spot is Afghanistan. All
alone in the 109th place with a score of just 25.
In case you want to check which country could bless your Instagram feed next, the Henley Passport Index also provides an extremely detailed list of countries you can access visa-free, with an e-visa, visa on arrival, or normal visa.
Time to start booking your flights, guys!
